Tag Archives: crime

Crime is Contagious

Crime is o.k. as for secretaries of states, members of congress, presidents and so on. The probability of being prosecuted diminishes the higher up a person is on the political power scale.  This is nothing new. What is new is that folks know about these kinds of crimes and watches those at the top get away with everything from murder to gun smuggling. Innocent until proven guilty you say? That standard only applies in an actual court of law. For a case to go to trial there must be a suspicion crimes are committed. Sometimes suspicion is well grounded. In the cases of the politically powerful suspicion is explained away.

Crime is in fact contagious. Human beings broadcast and receive their states of mind. Everything people do is at least in a minor way contagious.  This is all outside the awareness of the people who receive and broadcast. Not surprisingly verbal communication is unique in that we are aware of what we are doing. People are influenced in countless ways of which they are completely unaware.

When crime is o.k. in government and with politicians this influences the behavior of ordinary people. Do things in the country seem weird? Some of those already on the edge go over the edge as a result. 

This is not clairvoyance. The communication is wordless. We don’t know what it is but we know it is there. The best way to put a damper on school shootings is to begin to hold folks on the higher end of the power scale accountable. Until laws are enforced at the top, don’t expect to see a let up in lawlessness at the bottom. Expect more school shootings. Expect other odd acts of violence. Expect chaos.

Stock Market Now Through January

1 Reply

Wall-StreetHuman behavior is highly predictable. Dogs and cats have it down pat. Animals do not define their owners with euphemisms. They respond to them exactly as they are and know exactly what to expect. Human beings define their masters with all sorts of lofty euphemisms so they are completely confounded by what happens. You have no masters? That is because you define them as representatives, regardless of the fact that you serve them.

There are plans for the stock market. There is virtually no chance the averages will close down for the year, even if indicators lead you to expect that it will. Following an up year, you can expect a sell off in the first few days of January 2016 and then a break out to the upside which will be billed as the next up leg of this amazing bull market. Never mind that the breadth may be miserable and international events and circumstances will be miserable.

To accomplish these things, all it takes is all of the money in the world. The central banks have that and even more if they need it. All investors have is what they have earned.

How is such a thing possible? It is easy. All it takes is for the overwhelming majority of world citizens to believe the Federal Reserve is necessary, Open Market Committee members are honest people and that all that is being done is for the public good.

The truth is that Wall Street has hired government to enrich them and that is what is happening. It is as simple as that. The end, of course, is the complete destruction of the economy. That takes a long time so it is still open season on anyone who works for a living.

Americans will figure this out and rebel horribly but the odds of that happening in the next 30 days is real slim. I am forecasting dismal results for anyone trying to short this market. You are right about what you see but having all of the money in the world is an advantage that is hard to overcome. Donald Trump knows these things, so why is he not speaking up? Trump may be a refreshing figure but his bid for the presidency is self serving as all such efforts are. He will speak up only if it is to his benefit to do so.

Here is Curbside Jimmy’s Like The Highway and the Sea

 

High Frequency Trading, Just a Reminder

Leave a reply

high frequency tradingSeldom are the real reasons for things discussed in the media or anywhere else. The damage to the economy, done by high frequency trading firms is never discussed in the media or in academic circles.

Here are the facts.

It is not the speed of high frequency trading firms that puts investors at a disadvantage. Their speed is a function of these firms competing with one another. The faster a firm trades the more efficient it is in exploiting the unsuspecting behavior of the public, hedge funds, investors and traders of all kinds.

The only true advantages these firms have is that they are not bound by the constraints of existing securities laws. What we have is the equivalent of making robbery legal for an anointed set of citizens. That happens also, but folks are not aware of it.

No one has stated outright the high frequency trading firms are above the law. They don’t have to. Regulators simply fail to notice. Individual investors are sometimes prosecuted for spoofing. For high frequency trading firms spoofing is a constant trading technique from the open to close of trading.

High frequency trading firms and lawmakers have compatible goals so manipulation is overlooked as long as the result is higher stock prices. This puts all other traders at a disadvantage because they lose all objective criteria for studying price movements. Both fundamental and technical analysis become useless with respect to decision making.

The disadvantage to equity buyers and sellers is obvious. The general public suffers even more but for reasons that are not automatically grasped. Biggest of all are the changes in the incentives that govern the actions of the upper 1%. When all one has to do to get paid is run up the price of owned assets without respect of profits, the rich become lazy. Innovation and effort by the wealthy become highly subdued. Welfare for the rich has the same effect on the rich as it does on the poor. It reduces the incentive to do anything productive.

I mention these things today because we are on the cusp of an era where everyone together will suffer greatly as a result of years of abusing the financial markets. It is important that blame be correctly placed because someone will be blamed regardless.